Crowd levels - ever seen less than 4?

[jeepgirl30]

I'm trying to get prepared for our end of april trip. I usually go in Sept where the crowds have been very manageable. I went a couple times in May where they were definately higher volume but not bad waits. For our upcoming trip touring plans show a level 8, 6, some 5s and some 4s.

I looked over the year and see nothing under a 4.

I saw the post about the level 9 and am trying to gauge the differences in the levels. If 4 is the lowest then I'm thinking Sept, no waits. walk on to every ride. 5, some waiting but maybe 15 min waits? the level 8 scares me!

Is 4 the lowest the give? Has there ever been a 2 or 3?

 

[eelkmj01]

I'm trying to get prepared for our end of april trip. I usually go in Sept where the crowds have been very manageable. I went a couple times in May where they were definately higher volume but not bad waits. For our upcoming trip touring plans show a level 8, 6, some 5s and some 4s.

I looked over the year and see nothing under a 4.

I saw the post about the level 9 and am trying to gauge the differences in the levels. If 4 is the lowest then I'm thinking Sept, no waits. walk on to every ride. 5, some waiting but maybe 15 min waits? the level 8 scares me!

Is 4 the lowest the give? Has there ever been a 2 or 3?

Hello fellow Pittsburgher!!! I've never seen the crowd levels below a 4. I'm quite happy with that since our trip in May has 1 day at a 6 and 1 at a 5 and all the other days are 4.

 

[sharadoc]

I think we have, about 15 years ago

I remember walking through Hollywood Studios and seeing NO ONE around the whole lake area (in front of where Idol is now). We could get off and get right back on Star Tours and no one else was in the vehicle with us. The really good old days of January.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Are we talking specifically about TouringPlans.com?

I think it's unrealistic to ever see a value less than 4. Remember what this scale means. It measures peak time on any particular day for the line at Space, Splash, or BTMRR. A value of 4 means 35 - 44 minutes. Do you ever think there is a day in the Magic Kingdom where the wait time for for these three rides never goes past 30 minutes?

 

[Manda]

When we went in late January 2008, there was a crowd level of 3 for one day. That was a major reason I picked that week - I wanted to see that day.

 

[grandmadebby]

We were there last year in Sept and a couple of days were 4-5. Seems to me the lower crowd level doesn't benefit us as much as I thought it would, the hours the park where open where much shorter when the crowd level was down. So although we didn't have to wait as long to get on a ride we still didn't get alot of additional things done because the park closed earlier than I am use to.

 

[avahoneybee]

Yeah, in September 1983.

We go expecting crowds and are sometimes plesantly suprised.

 

[RMulieri]

Rarely do the crowd calendars go less then 4

 

[SydneyFalco]

Barring last minute weather or tragedy, I personally never expect to see anything under a 7 or even an 8 ever again. Doesn't mean a 5 or something couldn't happen on an otherwise normal day-- at low season say, with an unexpected imbalance in park attendance--but I'll never go to WDW ever again expecting anything less than 7/8 level waits in each of the parks. Just not going to happen much, in my opinion.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

I've never seen it under a 4, but just found the calendar in 2005 or so. We went on the 1 year anniversary of 9/11 in 2002 and it was a ghosttown in the parks, I'd say we might have been at a 2 and that was pushing it. We went to both MK and Epcot that day and rode anything we wanted with no wait, it's what spoiled me for no crowds at Disney (and that was our first trip). 2 years later in 2004 with multipe hurricaines pounding Florida (in September) we had crowds that were probably less than a 4 as well.

The 4's have just started to re-surface early this year, I dont remember any for the 2nd half of last year, or if there was one it was isolated, but some weeks this year there are several in a row or up to a week of 4's.

 

[humboldthny]

Remember what this scale means. It measures peak time on any particular day for the line at Space, Splash, or BTMRR. A value of 4 means 35 - 44 minutes.

I've never seen an explanation of the scale...so if a 4 is a peak wait time of 35-44 min., does that mean each level up is another 10 minutes of wait time roughly?

 

[blu3d3vil]

This is my own assessment but we went in early December one year and it was about a 1. The MK was totally empty all day and everything was walk-on (even Dumbo and Peter Pan). We went to IOA the same week and the exact same thing, no lines at all.

I'm not sure I'll ever see the park that empty again, but I can dream.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I've never seen an explanation of the scale...so if a 4 is a peak wait time of 35-44 min., does that mean each level up is another 10 minutes of wait time roughly?

Pretty much. On the Crowd Calendar page, which you can access the current month's level without logging in, there is an explanation if you click where it says "View crowd level-to-minutes chart":

Level Magic Kingdom
1 14 mins. or less
2 15 - 24 mins.
3 25 - 34 mins.
4 35 - 44 mins.
5 45 - 54 mins.
6 55 - 64 mins.
7 65 - 74 mins.
8 75 - 84 mins.
9 85 - 94 mins.
10 95 mins. or more

 

[reiella]

I think we have, about 15 years ago

I remember walking through Hollywood Studios and seeing NO ONE around the whole lake area (in front of where Idol is now). We could get off and get right back on Star Tours and no one else was in the vehicle with us. The really good old days of January.

Reminds me of my trip to Epcot, was back in 93, during the summer even. I think something must be wrong with my memory though, since I recall the park being practically empty.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I remember when September used to be EMPTY. I don't know if these services were around back then, but if they were, they would probably still have been rated at least a 4, as there were no Fast Passes back then, so the waits were still up there...

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

oops...

 

[saraheliz]

sounds like you're going the same time we are. we're just (most likely) avoiding mk on the "8" day- with it being an emh day and with mk closing early the next two nights, we figure everyone will be there. this will change if our flights are late and we don't get to mk the evening before, but otherwise we'll just head somewhere else for that day!

 

[selina4disney]

Once we had a 3. It was pretty empty.

 

[Finally08]

Is there a way to see what the crowd calender has chosen AFTER the date? Like maybe they called for an 8 but it ended up less...is that possible?
I wonder because when we were there 9/08 it was SO dead. There were hurricanes and tropical storms swarming around so I think an already slow time was even slower because people feared the weather. It was AMAZING though! You know how the park feels about 15 minutes after rope drop? It was like that all day.

 

[Tara922c]

I have gone in late Januaray, early February 2006, and there were NO lines. I don't know what the touring plans rate was (didn't know it exsisted back then) but when I say there weren't any lines, I mean it. In fact, when we rode Space Mountain, the ride was waiting for us. We rode Splash by ourselves, walked on to BTM, HM, and everything else. The only waits I saw that week were for Soarin, and that was about 30 minutes at 2 in the afternoon. Oh, it was so great!!! We were also able sit down, on the curb in Main Street to watch Spectro as it was starting!